I'm back, guys, and with a new computer at that! I've decided to abandon Badwild mostly just because I'm sick of evil biomes, but also because I have a cool idea for a new fort, one I've been waiting a while to do. Part of this idea is that it will be a longterm fort. That portion should be so much easier on me than my other longterm forts, mostly because this computer is literally 5x faster than my old one, and I still have the same FPS hoarding attitude. My cap will be set at 20, though I might bump it up to 30. I enjoy little forts, so I don't really ever intend to pull an Archcrystal and crank it way up. The second part of this idea is that the third part is a secret. I have a long, overreaching goal I aim to accomplish in this fort, and it's your job to guess what it is! I'll state it when it becomes impossible to hide, but that'll be a while, and the ball should already be in motion long before that. Oh yeah, and you're fully welcome to speculate, but I won't confirm or deny anything, so, good luck.

With all that said, lets hand it off to our overseer, Kadol Constructdrummed!

Preface:This journal shall serve as a log to record the happenings of the fortress I and my companions aim to found, so named Peakmetals. I will attempt to go into detail of major events and provide ample documentation where needed. In addition, I will continue this so as long as I remain alive, even if I cannot write from the perspective of overseer. If it is possible, I will encourage future leaders to take up this project in order to prevent the history and details of their reigns from being forgotten.

1 Granite, 100On this date, my request to found a new fortress in the mistakenly ominous sounding Hill of Skulls, a nearby prarie, was accepted at long last! It would have been a great shame to be rejected, as I had already begun preparing for the journey and gathered a humble crew of pioneers to join me. Nonetheless, I seriously doubt the request had a chance of being rejected; our kingdom, the Tin Tours, has been ruthlessly crowded out by The Socketed Board, another group of dwarves, and is frankly in rather dire straits economically: a new fortress can do little but lift the burden our Eastern oppressors have put on us by taking our lands. But enough of politics, I have hand-picked the site of our fortress for mineral wealth, which, as noted before, is in the Hill of Skulls just to the South of The Crest of Gears that we call home. For reference, I have obtained a map from one of the finest cartographers in the land and marked the site with a yellow X.

For the journey, I have prepared food, medical supplies, and raw materials to jump-start metalwork on the ample ores that should be in the area. I have also made note of the areas of expertise and names of myself and my compatriots, that none would be forgotten with time.

Not included in the supplies are the two cats brought along to keep vermin out of the food stores.

15 Granite, 100After a rather boring trip on the road, a trip during which I began this log, we have finally arrived! I've already been here several times before, what with its proximity to the mountains, but it's fulfilling to see it again, for real this time. I managed to extort a favor from that cartographer, so I was able to get a second map of the untouched surroundings of the site.

It's not very impressive, but every dwarf knows that the surface is not what makes a site worthwhile. Besides, maybe being uninteresting will keep goblins and other greedy dwarves away a little longer while we establish ourselves.

Enough writing, though. Fikod doesn't even know where to dig, and nobody else knows what they should be doing either, so I'll have to actually do my job instead of just sitting here in the wagon with a book.

Wow, been a while since somebody called one of my worlds pretty, mostly they're just an 'abomination' or 'hell on earth' or 'SWEET ARMOK WHY'. I actually don't know the seed and am too lazy to find out (world gen appears to have overwritten the last seed used, but I'm sure there's a DFhack command or something), but the generator makes almost the exact same world every time, so here's the parameter set, which would probably serve your purposes fine.

Well, I forgot to mention a thing or two a lot in the first preface. First off, I'll be only accepting the first two migrant waves, in addition to some petitioners, and will otherwise strive to be a homegrown fort (also, I forgot to change my pop cap from 10, so I only got the first migrant wave, so, heh). Second, I just noticed that literally every one of the starting seven is female, which is is pretty dang rare (~8/1000 chance). Next, holy heck this computer is fast, I tried unlimiting my FPS cap to see how fast and ended up with 1000 FPS, which I rapidly had to stop because stuff was happening (see: the update gap between 19 granite and 13 slate). Oh yeah, and I mis-named the gosh dang post. The fort is Peakmetals, not Peakmountains. Changed that. Lastly, I'll probably stop messing around with the tedious setup crap that nobody wants to hear pretty soon and start *actually* playing, as in passing more than like, a measly year in an update. For now though, you'll have to listen to Kadol ramble on about crundles and farming procedures, mostly for the sake of introductions and actually having something to post within the first decade.

19 Granite, 100Quite a lot has already happened! Two days ago, Fikod stuck the caverns, and just recently she reached the magma sea. I originally intended to set up a temporary shelter just underground to store supplies and shelter us, but the caverns seem peaceful enough for now, and Fikod is digging much faster than I expected. Me and the others have been hauling wood from the caverns to fortify the stairway against flying beasts, and will soon have to drag all the supplies from the wagon down into the growing fort, which, while mindless work, is not something I really look fowards to.

13 Slate, 100Perhaps I should be regretting the whole cavern outpost idea. The first wave of crundles just attacked. I managed to scare them off, and it doesn't seem like anybody was injured, but I forgot just how dangerous the caverns can be.

In better news, progress continues at a breakneck pace, and Itob, the fortress farmer, has taken up the remaining pick on my orders. Her expertise won't be of use for a while, and the smith's professions can't be tainted should inspiration stike to craft an artifact, so I decided that she was the best fit for the job. The fort itself is already halfway dug out, even!

Read like a book; the 8 main layers of the fort. They are, in order: the farm/hospital, the cistern, raw food storage, food processing, ready-to-eat food/drink, the main housing layer, secondary housing/recreation/workshops, and lastly, forges.

18 Felsite, 100The farm is almost drained of water now, and should be ready by summer. The crundles continue to harass us, but they're not strong enough to do much more than dole out cuts and bruises.

19 Malachite, 100Other than a troll attack that frighteningly took place in the middle of the fort, I can report nothing but good news. The smiths are finally busy churning out silver furniture, Iton is sowing our first crops, and the first migrants from the mountainhomes have finally arrived.

1 Granite, 101After a quiet winter, our first year is over. Things are slowing down as the fort develops, and Fikod has finally gotten a break from non-stop mining. I still haven't gotten around to proper stock-keepingóI've been too busy smoothingóbut here are my rough estimates for our wealth and food supplies.

17 Hematite, 103It's amazing to think it has been more than two years since I last wrote here. Peakmetals is finally quiet. The fire-breathing monster was safely contained long ago, although another beast now roams the caverns in its place.

Everything has settled into a pretty smooth routine. The fort has long since been smoothed, so all I really have to do is manage orders and process the occasional petitioner, all of which have been rejections so far. I have an... idea, but I'll need the right kind of peeople for the job, and nobody viable has shown up yet.

The reason I take pen in hand, other than just a status update, is a good reason. Ilral, mason and mechanic, has given birth to her first child. She's decided to go with the name Dishmab, a rather good name. The lad looks strong, and is of good blood, I just hope he doesn't catch and illnesses before he comes of a decent age.

12 Sandstone, 105After a long wait, a performance troupe, the Mysterious Pines, has petitioned for residency.They're mostly elves, which worries me since our liaison recently informed me of a new war with our southern neighbors, the Safe Swamps. Still, their music is good, and with nothing better to do than stand around in the tavern, I imagine we'll grow used to their performances in the coming years. They are a quite large troupe, so they make up over half of our population now. I'll try to coerce them into work sometime, but food is plentiful, so I can't say I really care that much if they refuse.

24 Limestone, 107The whole of the Mysterious Pines applied to become citizens today! The audacity! Well, mostly it's just a lot of paperwork to confirm it with the mountainhome. I'm glad to welcome them to the Tin Tours, and also to have the official ability to tell them to work for the fortress if needed.

3 Limestone, 115It seems that we've finally gotten the attention of the goblins. A small raiding party briefly showed up to visit.

We have a solid stone drawbridge that should hold against most any foe, but I'm still concerned, and am considering getting a few of our residents to arm themselves. Atu, the fortress' only goblin, is quite bored with the performances, so at the very least we should have one citizen willing to take up arms, but I might try to persuade a few of my kin into joining him. One goblin can't hold off an army.